Japan’s Exchange Club, An Art Dealer’s Tool to Trade Stock

Hong Kong’s The Standard has a profile of Alexi Fung Hon-chiu which contains this fascinating description of Japan’s exchange club for art dealers:

Fung graduated from the University of Bedfordshire in Britain with a communication and media degree. Passionate about Asian contemporary art, he moved to Japan 10 years ago and began trading the works of then-lesser known artists Takashi Murakami, Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara as an independent dealer in the secondary market for a short period.

“In Japan, there is an unusual industry-only club called the exchange association. Art dealers meet once every month to exchange whatever paintings that they cannot sell. It operates like an auction exclusive to the people in the business,” he recalls.

He later joined a Japanese auction house as a specialist. As the only Asian face who could speak Cantonese, English, Japanese and Putonghua, he swiftly rose through the ranks – rubbing shoulders with art gallery owners and collectors in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and negotiating consignments.